Trafeh Quietly Sets Big Goals

It has taken time, but Mohamed Trafeh of Duarte has learned as a runner that there are instances when it’s better to let your legs -- not your mouth -- speak for you.

That is apparent when the Arizona signee discusses his goals for the upcoming track and field season.

The outgoing, quick-to-smile Trafeh admits he wants to break 14 minutes for 5,000 meters, something that only five U.S. high school runners have done. But the Moroccan native refuses to give details about his goals for the 1,600 and 3,200 other than to say he plans to run races in the state championships at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento in June.

“I want to run some fast times,” he said of his goals. “But I want to keep them to myself. I don’t want to say what they are and have people think I had a bad season if I don’t reach them.”

Trafeh knows about the trappings of high expectations.

He finished 11th in the national cross-country championships at Morley Field in San Diego on Dec. 13 to earn third-team All-American honors and lock up his selection as The Times’ boys’ runner of the year. Yet that was a disappointing end to the season for someone who began it as the No. 2 returning runner in the nation after he finished seventh in the 2002 national meet.

“I just didn’t feel good during the race,” Trafeh said of his performance in the national championships. “It just wasn’t my race. The [early] pace was perfect. I just didn’t have a great race.”

Trafeh is not the first runner to turn in a subpar performance in a major meet, but his disappointing finish was magnified because his goal was to win the national title.

Setting a course record of 14 minutes 17 seconds in the Irvine Woodbridge Invitational on Sept. 20, tying the course record of 14:28 at Mt. San Antonio College in the Division IV race of the Southern Section championships Nov. 22 -- despite fasting from sunrise to sunset in observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- and winning his second consecutive state Division IV title at Woodward Park in Fresno a week later were all secondary to Trafeh’s quest for a national title.

“You have to set high goals for yourself,” said Trafeh, who finished second in the West Region championships at Mt. SAC on Dec. 6. “Otherwise, what are you running for? I set high goals for myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m saying I’m going to reach all of them. I use them as motivation.”

Trafeh’s remarks about wanting to break 14 minutes over Mt. SAC’s 2.91-mile layout was a goal that raised many eyebrows this season because Ryan Hall of Big Bear set the course record of 14:28 with a scintillating run in the Southern Section Division IV final in 2000.

Talk of slashing half a minute off that time seemed dismissive of the immense talents of Hall, who finished second for Stanford in the NCAA cross-country championships last month. But Trafeh said he meant no disrespect by his comments.

“I ran 17:53 at Mt. SAC as a freshman, 15:39 as a sophomore and 14:38 as a junior,” Trafeh explained. “So I thought it was possible for me to improve by 40 seconds this year.... But breaking 14:20 was probably a more realistic goal.”